Equipment such as 240V motors and heaters would not have a neutral he what he is trying to say. If you are an electrician you should be able to understand that.

True. But I have found over the years on here that when someone ask an electrical question that most of the people giving answers are not electricians or engineers.
Two guys that know what they are doing could accomplish his task in probably a couple hours with a volt/ohm meter by ringing out the circuits. Did it many times back in the day.

I have a question for the electricians here please. I recently purchased an abandoned gas station / car wash. It has been empty for at least 10 years. I am going to convert it to a different use, and I want to strip out all of the fixtures in wiring related to the gas pumping operation and convenience store coolers and equipment. But I want to keep the lighting and outlets and furnace, well pump, and the essential wiring in place. There is four or five different panels, and wires everywhere. The electrical power lines from the pole to the building have been cut off, so there is absolutely no power to the building at this point.

So what kind of apparatus can I use to most easily identify the circuit breakers and wires that lead to the essential fixtures, and which ones lead to the stuff that I want to rip out?

My plan is to get the demo done without the use of the electrician, then get a licensed electrician in to make any needed reconnections before getting the power hooked up again. I can run a generator or something to have some temporary lighting in there, but I'm looking for something, possibly battery-powered, that can allow me to trace circuits. Thanks, Joel

This seems like a relatively small scope. I'm not sure just what code version your building was built under but commercial buildings usually require conduit of some kind. You mentioned that much of it is EMT. So I would just trace the conduit from the equipment to the distribution panels and then start pulling the wire out of the conduits. Leave the conduits though, you may find a use for them in the future.

Pull up the ancient 3-Stooges video "A Plumbing we will go"....."There's wires in these pipes"

Maybe I shouldn't strip out much? The thing is there is three panels in the basement, and two or three on the main level. It's kind of a mess. It would be nice to consolidate it down to the essentials, but I suppose it's not necessary.

My reasonably intelligent and capable handy helper guy will work 6 hours for for the cost of one hour of a professional electrician. So with him and me I'd like to get the grunt work out of the way before the pro shows up. Hopefully they don't make me go to a code update. I had to do that once before and it was a bunch of really expensive nonsense in my opinion.

Huh? Say What? There is Single Phase and Three Phase...no "two or more phase".

hmm, 208/220/240 circuits? L1, L2, Neutral and ground

208/220/240 motors and heat don't use a neutral. L1, L2 and a ground. 120 volt motors and heat do use a neutral.

Easiest and fastest method is what I'm looking for. If I can use one of those hound dog scanner things to just magically follow the signal to the switches and fixtures without having to disassemble them, that would be the best. As long as it works through the EMT.

Huh? Say What? There is Single Phase and Three Phase...no "two or more phase".

Maybe I shouldn't strip out much? The thing is there is three panels in the basement, and two or three on the main level. It's kind of a mess. It would be nice to consolidate it down to the essentials, but I suppose it's not necessary.

My reasonably intelligent and capable handy helper guy will work 6 hours for for the cost of one hour of a professional electrician. So with him and me I'd like to get the grunt work out of the way before the pro shows up. Hopefully they don't make me go to a code update. I had to do that once before and it was a bunch of really expensive nonsense in my opinion.

Nice job of mucking up a thread

Maybe I shouldn't strip out much? The thing is there is three panels in the basement, and two or three on the main level. It's kind of a mess. It would be nice to consolidate it down to the essentials, but I suppose it's not necessary.

My reasonably intelligent and capable handy helper guy will work 6 hours for for the cost of one hour of a professional electrician. So with him and me I'd like to get the grunt work out of the way before the pro shows up. Hopefully they don't make me go to a code update. I had to do that once before and it was a bunch of really expensive nonsense in my opinion.

Nice job of mucking up a thread